World News | Israel-Hamas War Tensions Inflame the Middle East as Fighting Persists in Gaza

Jerusalem, Jan 18 (AP) Hamas militants are keeping up a stiff resistance across the Gaza Strip to Israel's offensive. The war shows no sign of ending and has inflamed tensions across the Middle East, with a dizzying array of strikes and counterstrikes in recent days.

Pakistan launched retaliatory airstrikes on Iran early Thursday, killing multiple people and further raising the threat of violence spreading in a Middle East unsettled by Israel's war with Hamas.

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In Gaza, a shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas entered the territory late Wednesday in a deal that Qatar and France worked out between Israel and Hamas.

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 24,400 Palestinians have died. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children. In Israel, around 1,200 people were killed during Hamas' Oct 7 attack that sparked the war and saw some 250 people taken hostage by militants.

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Currently:

- Pakistan launches retaliatory airstrikes in Iran after an earlier attack by Tehran, killing 9 people.

- The US pledges new sanctions over Houthi attacks will minimise harm to Yemen's hungry millions.

- An estimated 60,000 wounded Palestinians are overwhelming the remaining doctors, the UN says.

- Harsh Israeli rhetoric against Palestinians becomes central to South Africa's genocide case.

Here's the latest:

YEMEN'S HOUTHI LEADER VOWS MORE ATTACKS ON SHIPS AT SEA DESPITE US, UK RETALIATION

SANAA - The Houthi rebels' supreme leader vowed on Thursday that attacks by his forces on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden would continue despite recent retaliation strikes from American and British forces.

The Iran-backed group, which seized much of northern Yemen in 2014, says its attacks are aimed at backing Hamas and Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip amid Israel's war on Hamas. But the Houthis have also frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel.

“We will continue targeting ships linked to Israel,” Abdel Malek al-Houthi said in an hour-long televised speech.

He also said his forces will continue to develop their military capabilities and that recent airstrikes by the United States and United Kingdom on Houthi targets do "not scare us.”

Thursday's speech is al-Houthi's first public address since the US and UK strikes last week.

ISRAEL'S AIR DEFENSE INTERCEPTS SUSPICIOUS AERIAL TARGET' OVER THE RED SEA

TEL AVIV - The Israeli army says it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” over the Red Sea near the southern city of Eilat on Thursday. There were no reports of casualties or damage, but the launch of the interceptor set off air raid sirens in the coastal city.

The military did not say whether the object was a drone or missile, or who may have fired it. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired drones and missiles at Israel in the past, but most have fallen short or were intercepted and shot down.

In November, a drone exploded in the yard of a house in Eilat, causing no injuries.

The Houthis have attacked container ships in the Red Sea in what they portray as a blockade of Israel linked to its war against Hamas in Gaza. The attacks, which have disrupted global trade, have continued despite US-led airstrikes against the rebels in recent days.

PAKISTAN LAUNCHES RETALIATORY STRIKES IN IRAN AS MIDEAST TENSIONS RISE

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's air force launched retaliatory airstrikes early on Thursday in Iran, allegedly targeting militant hideouts in an attack that killed at least nine people and further raised tensions between the neighbouring nations.

The tit-for-tat attacks between Iran and Pakistan this week appeared to target two Baluch militant groups with similar separatist goals on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border. However, the two countries have accused each other of providing safe haven to the groups in their respective territories.

The attacks come as the Middle East remains unsettled by Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran also staged airstrikes late Monday in Iraq and Syria over an Islamic State-claimed suicide bombing that killed over 90 people in early January.

The strikes imperil diplomatic relations between the two neighbours, as Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have long regarded each other with suspicion over militant attacks. Each nation also faces its own internal political pressures - and the strikes may in part be in response to that.

FAMILY IN TEL AVIV WILL MARK THE 1ST BIRTHDAY OF THE YOUNGEST ISRAELI HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS

TEL AVIV - Family members and supporters will mark the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli held by Hamas militants in Gaza, in a somber ceremony in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

The red-haired infant, who has been in captivity for a quarter of his life, has become a symbol for the helplessness and anger in Israel over the dozens of hostages still held in Gaza after Hamas' deadly Oct 7 attack on southern Israel.

On Tuesday, his family gathered at the Bibas' home in Kibbutz Nir Oz near Gaza, blowing up orange balloons to hang on the walls to cover bullet holes and spatters of blood, and filling his nursery school classroom with birthday decorations.

“It's celebrating for someone who isn't here,” Yossi Schneider, a cousin of Kfir's mother, Shiri, told Israel's Channel 12 TV. “He's supposed to be out here on the grass of the kibbutz, with balloons on the trees, with family and high-fives and presents and love and hugs, and none of those things will be there.”

In video from the Hamas attack, Kfir and his 4-year-old brother, Ariel, are being held by their terrified mother as gunmen shout in Arabic. The boys' father, Yarden, was also taken captive and appears in photos to have been wounded. Under a weeklong temporary cease-fire, Hamas released women, children and teens, but Shiri Bibas and her sons were not included in the list. (AP)

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